News
Local

Sprung turns a new leaf in sustainable gardening

PAUL KRAJEWSKI HIGH RIVER TIMES/POSTMEDIA NETWORK. Sprung Instant Structures, Argo Resilience Kit and Alberta Tilapia Aquaponics are perfecting a sustainable greenhouse gardening system that operates on aquaponics, a natural and organic plant feed system using Tilapia fish, in Sprung’s newly designed greenhouse research and design facility in Aldersyde, Alta. Alberta Tilapia's Gerrit Swanepoel explains how the process works during a tour on Aug. 24, 2017.

It’s been nearly 30 years since Sprung Instant Structures Ltd. stepped away from the greenhouse business to focus on its flagship product, the tensioned membrane building.

In 1987, the company partnered with the Newfoundland and Labrador government to build a greenhouse hydroponics facility near the St. John’s-Mount Pearl boundary, according to the Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage (NLH) website.

At that time, the government stated the project would boost the economy, create jobs and supply the local food chain with fresh produce.

However, NLH reported the facility failed to produce the quantity or quality of foods needed to sustain the operation, costing taxpayers over $20 million before it was sold and dismantled.

After the project, Tim Sprung, Sprung Instant Structure’s vice president, said the company focused on its “bread and butter” while halting production of greenhouses.

“We’ve learned from our mistakes—it’s OK to give things up and continue on a path that makes us money, because if we stay in something too long that we are losing money at, we’ll no longer be in business,” he said, noting it was nothing more than a slight setback.

“Let’s leave the growing to the specialists,” he added. “We’ll focus on what we do, making a product that is profitable.”

Now the firm is back building greenhouse structures and, through collaborations, have made a product that’s both profitable and successful, officials said.

Sprung Instant Structures, with two other southern Alberta companies, are working to address a growing global need for sustainable farming techniques by improving greenhouse gardening systems in a research and design facility near Calgary.

Calgary-based Argo Resilience Kit Ltd. (ARK) and High River’s Alberta Tilapia Aquaponics are using Sprung Instant Structure’s newly developed tension fabric greenhouse, located at its Aldersyde facility, to develop and perfect hydroculture systems—a method of growing plants without soil.

Sprung said the systems are solutions to the world’s agricultural woes, especially in tough climates with minimal resources.

“This is a year-round facility that can be put anywhere in the world,” he told the Times while pointing to the 3,200-square-foot air and water tight structure during a tour of the facility on Aug. 24.

He said the membrane is a highly translucent specialized Japanese product that allows 64 per cent sunlight transmission while diffusing it to provide ample supply for the photosynthesis process.

The weather-resistant fabric produces just enough ambient light to enhance the growing process, but not enough to harm the plants, he said.

It also acts as an insulator to maintain adequate air temperature, he added.

Within the structure, ARK designed and built 12 vertical growing towers in four rows with the ability to host up to 7,000 plants.

Jordan Cloutier, ARK construction consultant, said the towers, which currently hold approximately 4,000 plants, are divided between two systems: hydroponics, a growing method where vegetation is nourished with a mineral-based solution, and aquaponics, a self-contained organic system filtered and fed by a school of Tilapia fish.

In both practices, plants are fed water directly to their roots through a series of pipes used as plant bed, he added.

Cloutier said the design is similar to the Juice Plus + Tower Garden, a soil-less, self-watering, self-contained unit that can grow food indoors year round in a space saving configuration.

The facility, which he operates and helped build, has the potential of housing nearly triple the amount of plants once ARK’s newly developed floating rack system has been built, he said.

It will feature shelves on varying levels supporting plants growing through a Styrofoam panel plant bed that can be fed by either system, he added.

After comparing the results of the two designs, Sprung indicated plans to convert all towers to the fish-based method as crops fed by the aquaponics system matured at a faster pace than its hydroponic counterparts.

Gerrit Swanepoel, director of High River’s Alberta Tilapia, said the process is natural and organic.

“We use the fish waste that gets converted from ammonia over to nitrate, which the plants use,” he explained. “The nice thing about this system is that it is so consistent in nutrition that the plants get an (appropriate dose) every time, where in hydroponics, the nutrition will go up and down.”

Swanepoel said the fish are fed organic foods while waste is diverted through a bio-filtration system that uses a lava rock for the nitration process, he said.

It’s a 100 per cent clean system supplemented by adding one per cent daily water to account for evaporation, he added.

“The water usage is a lot less than other greenhouses because we don’t have to add, at the end of the day, so much more water,” he said.

Swanepoel said the system costs significantly less to operate than traditional designs while yielding greater results—plants grow faster and operators have the added bonus of harvesting the fish.

Food production at the facility began in February, Sprung explained.

Harvested produce from the greenhouse—mostly herbs, leafy greens and tomatoes at the moment—is being used in Sprung Instant Structure’s cafeteria that services over 100 employees.

He noted excess produce will be sold to local vendors and eateries as production increases.

Sprung said a full greenhouse system, like the one being developed, will cost between $300,000 to $400,000.

He indicated it will save the operator money in the long run with reduced operating costs.

“With our technology, and now aquaponics, that will even help more on keeping those bills down,” he added. “We are trying to get to a net-zero spot where it doesn’t cost us anything.”

He said the facility is also easy to build, maintain and to adapt to most any climate.

Sprung said stage two of the project involves incorporating trenches below the towers to house additional tilapia tanks, composting bins and climate batteries, which will expand to 20,000 plants.